The only victim killed in a stabbing spree in London was the American wife of a Florida university professor, who is spending the summer in Great Britain, when the attack started, officials said Thursday.
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Horton and her husband, Richard Wagner, were in London because he was teaching at a summer study-abroad program.
The woman who was killed was identified as Horton by Florida Governor Rick Scott. Wednesday night, she and five other pedestrians were suddenly attacked by a knife-wielding man in Russell Square.
“So far we have found no evidence of radicalization or anything that would suggest the man in our custody was motivated by terrorism”, said Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
In a statement, Florida State University President John Thrasher said: “There are no words to express our heartache over this bad tragedy”.
The couple had planned to fly home to Tallahassee the next day.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “The murder investigation is being led by detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command”.
Two Australians, an Israeli, an American and a British citizen were also injured in the attack. “At this time we believe this was a spontaneous attack and the victims were selected at random”, Rowley told journalists.
“We all have a vital role to play as eyes and ears for our police and security services and in helping to ensure London is protected”, Khan said.
A police officers stands watch by the forensics tent set up next to the park in Russell Square in central London, near the British Museum.
Police officers were on the scene within six minutes of the attack and they immobilised the suspect using a Taser.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan praised the swift police reaction saying they were doing an “increasingly hard job”, the BBC reported. The police were doing an incredibly hard job, the mayor said, adding that the safety of Londoners was his “number one priority”.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that two Australians, a man and a woman, received non-life threatening injuries in the attack.
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Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley told reporters the one woman killed in the attack in central London’s Russell Square late Wednesday was a United States national.
